PGA Tour Zurich Classic Hosting Louisiana Forward Economic Summit

The Zurich Classic, this week’s stop on the PGA Tour, will host the Louisiana Forward economic summit today for about 350 professionals in the New Orleans area and several politicians, including Gov. Bobby Jindal. He will talk to the group about the state’s economy and the ongoing recovery from the oil spill in the gulf one year ago. The summit is being presented by Capital One Bank, a secondary sponsor for the tournament, along with Zurich. “We’re one year past the spill and what’s the outlook?” said Tommy Fonseca, tournament director for the Zurich Classic. “We’ve developed this platform to look at where we’re at as a state and a city and it helps us tie in the economic impact of the tournament to the area as well.”

Zurich Senior VP Mark Toohey said the insurance giant’s business is responding to catastrophes and that Zurich has seen its role as the tournament’s title sponsor expand to help the New Orleans community get back on its feet. Zurich worked with the tournament to start the economic summit two years ago in order to discuss the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and “it’s become a great way to talk about the charitable pieces around the tournament,” Toohey said. Zurich and Fore!Kids have raised more than $8M since '05, while also supporting the St. Bernard Project to rebuild homes damaged or destroyed by Katrina.